Writing, secrets and loads of chocolate cake!

Welcome to the first post in what I hope will be an ongoing series in which I will be spotlighting certain “family trees” that are in Forgotten and will appear throughout my “In The Shadows” series. To avoid spoilers I won’t be mentioning any characters by name but you can look forward to posts about werewolves, witches, soulreapers, shadowshifers and fey folk. To kick off the series of posts, I am starting with my vampires.

Throughout the ITS series you will come across both born and made vampires. Below is what abilities my vampires possess. Please Note: I have been influenced by certain aspects of vampire lore, but not others. I understand that some people are attached to how they picture a vampire, but this is what I imagine for my books and I hope everyone will respect that my ideals may be different to their own. Thank you.

Family Trees – Species

Vampires

Age: 0 – 2 yrs can’t be a vampire. Would die if bitten, so most vampires that aren’t powerful enough (see later notes) will kidnap a newborn human and, for the first two years. raise it as human before they can begin the transformation.

Age: 3 – 10 yrs vamps are called darklings, are extremely sensitive to sunlight (so much so that being in it will kill them), and can only walk outside after dusk. To make up for this obvious weakness, they are agile and cunning.

Age: 11 – 14 yrs vamps are called dusklings. They’re also sensitive to sunlight but can walk around in the daylight if wearing the highest factor sunscreens.

Note: Normally darklings & dusklings go to specialist schools that have controlled lighting (as well as other features that are matched to meet their specific requirements).

Age: 15 – 16 yrs are fledgling vampires and are less immune to the sun which makes them weak and easily mistaken for humans.

Age: 17 – 21 yrs are the most common and known only as vampires at that age.

Shadowmancers like chaos & are normally able to wipe out whole villages.

Whether born a vampire or made one, most will stay a vampire and not transcend into becoming a Shadowmancer.

Only vampires that were born to vampire parents can have children of their own.

None of my vampires can fly or are any kind of shifters (i.e. animal, mist, etc…)

All vampires aged between 2 – 10 yrs have a solid diet of blood to survive. Older vampires can eat & drink like humans but still need blood to live, although most have unique ways of mixing it in with their food so they can hide in plain sight if the need arises.

Vampires Strengths

Heightened hearing, sense of smell & eyesight. Also can see in the dark.

Stronger – Can easily rip a car door from its hinges if needed.

Born vampires have the ability to slow down their aging or stop aging if trained properly and most will learn this ability between the ages 11-14. Made vampires are normally stuck at the age in which they were turned but some if they are sired by a powerful vampire (over 400 hundred years old), and with the help of blood magic, can learn the abilities of the vampires that turned them.

Faster – Can run / move faster. Also more agile, can easily move across rooftops / amongst the trees.

Can jump a great height and can also fall from a great height without sustaining any serious damage.

If the situation is dire then they have the ability to mimic a human heartbeat so will appear to have a pulse; this ability will normally be a self-preservation measure due to being knocked unconscious.

Vampire Weaknesses

Sunlight can kill / seriously burn young vampires (people turned under the age of 12). Older vampires can still go out in the sun but it still affects them and causes them weakness. Prolonged exposure can lead to near fatality and they will need to feed to avoid death. The older the vampire, the more it can tolerate the sun.

Example: A 400-year-old vampire can move about in the sunlight more easily than a 300-year-old vampire and so on…

Nearly all turned vampires shouldn’t go out into the sun until at least 24-48 hours after they have been turned or fed, whichever applies.

Fire: Kills vampires.

Stakes: In the heart won’t kill them but will weaken them.

All vampires whether born or made can suffer from memory loss if hit hard enough with a wooden object; in some cases it has been know to make vampires fall into a coma.

I hope you liked my little behind the scenes look at the vampires of the “In The Shadows” series.

I welcome any questions you may have if you would like me to expand further on parts of the post.

* Important note: This blog post will at some point in the future (date yet to be determined) be likely to be featured in the “In The Shadows – Companion Guide”.

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